A World Inbetween
by H0rizons
Summary: Ever since Mirai returned to the world of the living, things have, for the most part, gone back to normal... or whatever one would call normal. But this peace is not to last as Akihito along with Mirai, Ai, and Ayaka learn that there is much more to the co existing worlds of the youmu and humans than meets the eye. (Focused on developing relationship between main people and youmu)
1. Chapter 1: Perverts and Youmu

**Been awhile since I've done some actual typing and what not, but we'll see how this goes. Responses are necessary for me to improve, but try to keep it to constructive rather than straight up insulting, which I know there are a few of you out there that insult just because you can. Other than those pointers, enjoy I suppose.**

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><p><strong>Chapter 1: Perverts and Youmu<strong>

Akihito let out an overly obnoxious yawn as he stretched out his arms, trying to shake away the chills of the winter air that stiffened up his body. Snow fell outside as he looked past the frost tinted windows that made up the side of the Literary Club Room.

"Brrrrr," he grumbled to himself as he rubbed his arms together afterwards, rocking back and forth in his chair. This made a slight snapping sound each time it rocked forward and touched the ground, however that consistent noise immediately began to irritate another member of the Literary Club, Mitsuki Nase.

With her sleek black hair and sarcastic reddish-brown eyes, she turned her gaze away from the book she was reading and towards Akihito, ready to open her mouth and verbally abuse Akihito once more.

"Do you have something better to do rather than sit there and irritate me with that chair pervert?" she said harshly, her eyes narrowing slightly in a teasing way that bared no resemblance to the tone of her voice, "Because You could help me with these here books we need to review for the newspaper."

"Ah..." coughed Akihito as leaned forward once more, smacking the chair legs to the ground and sitting him up straight, "Well I wish I could, Mitsuki, but ah... I have other work to attend to," he said rather seriously towards the end, his eyes lighting up with excitement.

"Now what would that be?" asked Mitsuki, her eyes returning to the book as she licked her thumb and folded over to the next page.

"I'm glad you asked!" said Akihito triumphantly as he stood up from his chair, grabbed his bag, and started rummaging through it, "So you know how Kuriyama-san wears glasses right?"

"Mhmm," mumbled Mitsuki in response as she began to realize what Akihito was going to discuss.

"So I was thinking... Maybe instead of just a single pair of glasses she wears all the time. How about a specific pair of glasses she wears depending on the situation!" boomed Akihito as he finally wrenched out a a wooden box with golden lining and gingerly placed it on the table. Mitsuki sighed as she looked up from her book to see the box being brushed off with a duster by Akihito, she opened up her mouth to speak, but he silenced her with a finger.

"But wait there's more!" he said gleefully as she opened the box ever so carefully. As the box opened, mist slowly seeped out of the edges to reveal seven pairs of glasses, each wrapped neatly with a cloth for cleaning and all a variety of varying colors and sizes.

"One for each day of the week!" said Akihito as he sighed in happiness at the thought of Mirai Kuriyama wearing each of these glasses on a different day of the week. Gingerly picking one up, he brushed off some dust that had fallen on it before placing it back.

"Pervert..." mumbled Mitsuki as her eyebrow twitched in irritation.

"Hmmm?" asked Akihito, as he looked up from the glasses.

"I said..."

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><p>Akihito sighed as he heard the door to the literacy room locked behind him. Clutching onto his box, Akihito knocked on the door.<p>

"Mitsuki, my jacket is still in there... can I at least-"

"Pervert.." replied Mitsuki from through the door before he could finish. Akihito shook his head once more before turning to go see if Hiromi was somewhere in the building.

It was an hour so since school ended so there weren't many people in the building, but despite searching through all the hiding spots where Hiromi usually was, Akihito couldn't find him.

"Huh... he must've gone home," he mumbled to himself as he turned to head back to the literary club, only to find Ai-chan sitting alone in the cafeteria, reading a book on her lap.

Akihito blinked as he watched her for a moment before smiling. I'm sure Ai would appreciate my idea with glasses, I mean she is part of the fine art of photography. he thought before tucking the box underneath his arm and making his way towards her.

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><p>"And as for you, pervert," growled Mitsuki as she glanced at the bookshelf in the literary club, where a pair of binoculars poked out, "Either help me with these books are go outside with Akihito as well."<p>

"What did I say you had to call me again?" sighed Hiromi as he lowered the binoculars and narrowed his eyes at his younger sister.

"Fine, pervert brother, get out." retorted Mitsuki as she pointed towards the door.

"But!"

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><p>Hiromi sighed as he heard the door lock behind him and looked downed at his broken pair of binoculars.<p>

"Well at least I still have this," he mumbled as he took out his camera and looked round for another way in.

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><p>"So you really think that I should replace the blue glasses with a lighter color since they'll contrast better with her eyes?" asked Akihito as he listened carefully to Ai's suggestions.<p>

Ai nodded in agreement to his statement, "Yes, it'll definitely help," she said with a slight giggle, "Now is that all you needed to know?"

Akihito nodded thoughtfully as he stared at the pair of blue glasses before getting up and taking his box along with him, leaving Ai to her studying once more.

He continued to stare at the the glasses as he made his way outside. Ignoring the cold that bit at his skin, he walked along with snowy sidewalk, feet crunching in the snow. He continued walking, not noticing Hiromi to his right, climbing up the flag pole so as to get a view of Mitsuki.

This pattern of thoughtful walking continued until Akihito's phone vibrated. He blinked as he quickly stuffed the glasses in his pocket and pulled out his phone, just now starting to react to the cold.

"My god, it's freezing," he huffed as he slid open his phone and opened the messages. Pictures are ready for pick up. So long as you have the money you still owe me from the last order. - Ayake

"Hmmm," murmured Akihito as he stared at the text before shrugging and taking out his wallet and making sure he had enough, "Maybe pictures of Kuryiama-san would help me decide on whether or not to replace the blue pair..."

Decided that it would benefit him either way, he decided to make his way towards the store, making sure to keep the glasses safe at all times.

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><p>"A bit cold outside?" asked Ayaka as she rested her left cheek on the palm of her hand, her other hand carefully balancing her lit pipe. Her soft green eyes blinked warmly at Akihito as she observed the half frozen boy who stood at her doorway covered head to toe in snow.<p>

"No it was wonderful," replied Akihito sarcastically as he narrowed his eyes in discomfort before shuffling over to the seat across from Ayaka, brushing snow off of himself as he went. Once he'd plopped himself onto the table, he placed the box in front of Ayaka and sighed.

"I need your help Ayaka, Ai-chan tried helping me previously, but... I think it's time I asked professional help. You are a photographer, you'd know what would look best."

"Go on," urged Ayaka as she glanced down at the box, a smile of amusement forming on her lips. She was sure this box had something to do with what he was talking about and she was even more sure that it definitely involved his... obsessive outlook on glasses.

"Well you see it's an idea i've had for awhile Ayaka," he began immediately as his still cold hands reached forward and opened the box to reveal seven sets of glasses.

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><p>"And so now I'm down to trying to decide whether or not to replace the blue pair since Ai-chan said it wouldn't contrast well with Kuriyama-san's eyes..." he said finally whilst staring at the blue pair in his hands.<p>

Ayaka stifled a yawn as she lazily blinked the sleepiness from her eyes before trying to nod as if she understood his predicament. In all honesty she didn't care in the slightest and would rather have had him ask her something more important like... for example purchasing more pictures of bespectacled beauties.

"Speaking of glasses," said Ayaka, deciding to change the subject so as to avoid any conflict in the future with her employee, "Didn't you come here to pick up your order?"

Ayake slid a blue envelope from under her sleeve with the name 'Mirai Kuriyama' written on it.

"Yes of course! That too!" exclaimed Akihito as he made a grab for it, but Ayaka quickly slid it away and held out her palm with a smile.

"Your payment?" she asked politely, which resulted in a groan from Akihito as he started to rummage through his pockets for his wallet. But as he was about to pull out the cash, a gust of wind blew in followed by the sound of the door bells ringing.

"Yo Ayaka!" came the sound of a familiar female voice as the two heard the shop's door shut. Akihito shivered as Ayaka turned to see who had just come in although she had a pretty good idea judging from the initial sounds.

"Ah, nice to see you Miss Shizuku," said Ayaka as she slid the envelope back into her sleeve and nodded in greeting at the brown haired teacher who stood at the doorway, "What brings you here?"

"Bagged myself a nice Youmu, Ayaka," replied Miss Shizuku who reached into her pocket and pulled out what looked like a dark rock with light blue crystals protruding out of its sides, "I've been told it's a rare one, but despite it being so rare... I'm unsure why it was so weak. Also if you don't mind, could you appraise it when I get back?. I have another hot date tonight."

Just to emphasis her point she thrust out her phone which displayed the message of where the date was located.

"Of course not," replied Ayaka smoothly as she ignored the phone's display and held out her hands to catch the stone as it was tossed to her, but as she caught it she felt an ominous feeling, causing her face to wrinkle up in disdain.

"What is it Ayaka-san?" asked Akihito immediately as he noticed Ayaka's face wrinkle up a bit, which was extremely uncommon.

"It's nothing," she said shrugging off the feeling as she pocketed the stone and nodded to Miss Shizuku in thanks, "We'll have the stone appraised by the time you return."

"Great to here," grinned Miss Shizuku as she pocketed her phone and turned to head out the door, but stopped before exiting to glance at Akihito and sigh. She then rather forcefully opened the door and walked out into the cold evening air.

"Sheesh, why'd she give me such a dirty look?" grumbled Akihito as he picked up his glasses and started walking upstairs to Ayaka's appraisal room.

"Because she just realized how bad your problem is," sighed Ayaka as she followed him up as well.

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><p><strong>Chapters will be really quick, but that's only because I lack the time to type all of this. Also, all of this chapter 1 is just to introduce what everyone is doing. Well... except mirai herself, but i'll get to that in chapter 2 or 3... the story isn't even centered around her anyways. For those of you that see that i've made any mistakes anywhere as far as characters, setting, or just the vocabulary please don't hesitate to tell me. Also I have not yet gotten to the light novel everyone (still searching for a proper translation) so bare with my poor skills at analyzing and interpreting the characters as well as their behaviors.<strong>


	2. Chapter 2: Misinterpretations

**Will be fixing spotted grammatical errors as I see them in the chapters before and here on. Please do tell me if you spot any I miss though**

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><p><strong>Chapter 2: Misinterpretations<strong>

"How could this have happened?!" screeched Mirai as she examined the scene on the top floor of Ayaka's store. Next to her stood Ai as the two of them examined the appraisal room, shocked at the mess in front of them. Papers were strewn all over the room and the table in the middle where Ayaka usually did her appraising had a circular burnt mark on it.

"W-what happened here?" squeaked Ai as she took a small step and gazed around at the damage. Beside her Mirai had taken out her phone and began rapidly blogging whilst taking pictures of the scene., unsure of how to react.

"I don't know what's going on right now, but it is most definitely unpleasant," grumbled Mirai underneath her breath as she typed on her keyboard unrelentingly, ignoring the fact that Ai was now pointing at something in the corner of the room.

"Er...Mirai...," mumbled Ai as she carefully approached what seemed to be a small box in the corner of the room and picked it up, "You may want to look at this..."

"Hmm?" said Mirai as she stopped blogging for a moment and looked up, "What is-"

She stopped mid sentence as Ai presented her a box full of glasses.

"This is... probably senpai's box," murmured Mirai as she took it from Ai and held it in her hands before glancing back down at the burn mark on the table, "So senpai was here when this happened?"

Ai shook her head and shrugged, unsure of how to respond to Mirai's assumption. It was troubling that Ayaka wasn't present either. It was even more disturbing that try as she could, Ai couldn't sense Ayaka's presence anywhere. It was almost as if she had... disappeared from the area completely. Ai closed her eyes and sighed. Some of Ayaka's knowledge would be really helpful at the moment.

"Maybe we should go find Mitsuki and Hiromi-senpai," said Ai finally after watching Mirai pace around the room repeatedly for a few minutes, looking for clues as to where Akihito and Ayaka had gone.

"Good idea Ai-chan," replied Mirai as she placed the box on the table and gave one last look around the room, "maybe they'll know what happened here."

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><p>"Yakiimo!" commanded Mitsuki as she pointed towards her brother who was cowering on the flagpole, camera in hand. At Mitsuki's signal youmu lunged from her arm and started scratching Hiromi, "You're lucky I can't kill you."<p>

"Why would you do such a thing to your precious onii-chan!" yelled Hiromi as he frantically jumped off of the flagpole and ran away, Yakiimo still on him scratching away happily. A few moments passed before Mitsuki sighed and decided to follow.

"I don't want him scaring half the town with Yakiimo on him," she mumbled as she made her way in the direction he had run off.

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><p>"Ughh... my head," moaned Akihitio as he struggled to open his eyes, but was quickly shushed by a finger pressing to his lips.<p>

"shhhh, lay still," came a familiar voice from above as he started to flail about at the woman's voice. Slowly though, he opened his eyes to find himself face to face with a a green eyed woman whose hair was tied up in a ponytail and had similar facial features to a youmu he knew.

"Ayaka?" he asked whilst sitting up and giving the woman a questioning look win which the woman simply smiled and nodded before standing up. She held out her hand, which Akihito was about to take until huge white figure suddenly slammed into the woman.

"What the hell!?" yelped Akihito as he jumped backwards and glanced over to where the woman lay, a huge white ninetailed fox standing above her, "Ayaka?!"

He yelled at her name once more and both the fox and the woman turned to look at him, their eyes glaring.

"ahh... nevermind!" he called back as he backed up behind a rock, forcing a laugh to come out of his throat as he did so for he knew from experience that the worst kinds of fights were between women. Never interfere with a fight between women... even if that fight was between two alternate forms of the same woman...

Akihito glanced over the rock at the woman and the fox, who were no engaged in furious combat as the woman dodged the foxes blows whilst she tried fighting back herself. It seemed like a hopeless situation for the woman, but he soon realized that the woman, in fact, was holding her own against the fox.

"Woah... Ayaka..." he breathed as he watched the fighting continue until he felt a tap on his shoulder.

"Time to go," came a familiar voice once more as Akihito turned around and saw Ayaka once more.

"Eeeeep!" he screamed as he took a double take at the other two Ayaka's fighting behind him before pointing at Ayaka, "Why are there so many of you!?"

Ayaka tilted her head and smiled understandingly before holding out her hand.

"I'll explain later," she stated glancing up at the other two Ayaka's fighting. "We don't have much time."

Akihito sighed and nodded before taking her hand, but not without realizing that this entire time the Ayaka he was talking to had not once dropped her one of voice from a happy one and had not once stopped smiling. It was, in retrospect, quite creepy to him, but the current situation he was in wasn't exactly out of the ordinary though, him being an immortal and all.

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><p>"And then there was this whole crazy mess in the room with wind flying everywhere and papers strewn all over the floor! It was crazy and I found these glasses and senpai and Ayaka-san are missing and I think it has to be bad and this is most unpleasant!" pouted Mirai as she finally stopped to take a breath.<p>

In front of her stood the confused Hiromi and Mitsuki who had no idea what was going on.

"Could you... explain that a bit slower again?" asked Mitsuki as she raised a concerned eyebrow, "I mean I know this will be the fourth time you've explained it, but I am still not sure as to what you mean."

"How Unpleasant!" exclaimed Mirai at Mitsuki's response to her story once more as she puffed out her cheeks in frustration. Mitsuki sighed and shook her head before gesturing towards Ai for some help.

"What Mirai is trying to say is that Akihito and Ayaka-san are missing as well as there was a huge mess up in Ayaka's appraisal room. The only evidence we found was his box of glasses he wanted Mirai to use."

"That pervert," grumbled Mitsuki initially after Ai's explanation, "Being a pervert all the way until the end."

"Any signs or clues as to what you think could've happened?" asked Hiromi as he ignored his sister's comments on Akihito being a pervert.

"No, not that I've seen, but we can head back to the shop and check it out now," said Ai shaking her head as she brushed some snow off her head, "Besides, it's better to do something rather than just stand out her in the snow, right? Eitherway, what were you doing out here in the snow anyways?"

"Nothing," grumbled Mitsuki as she suddenly shoved past the group and headed towards the shop. Hiromi shook his head before shrugging at Ai and Mirai.

"Ladies first," he said gesturing ahead before turning back to look down the street where the shattered pieced of his camera lay, a single tear rolling down his face.

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><p>"So what you're saying is is that we're in an alternate dimension specifically designed by a youmu that takes a person's personality and splits them up?"<p>

"Yes... and no. Not quite," said Ayaka as she fiddled with her thumbs, "You see, the stone is only activated by another Youmu in which the previous youmu splits up the new youmu's personality, age, everything. That's why you see younger versions of myself roaming this... plain lets say. It takes one's memories, past selves, and all and split it up. Almost like a puzzle being torn apart you could say."

Akihito scratched his head in a confused manner, but Ayaka still continued.

"So as I was saying, once the personalities, ages, and characteristics are split up, this youmu either takes manifestation of that person's body, completely taking control over it or it just consumes you in order to recreate itself in its original form."

"Sounds... dangerous... but why am I here?" asked Akihito as he glanced down at his hands.

"Hmmm... that's a very good question," said Ayaka as she shrugged, "But I do not know. You must find an older, much wiser version of myself to find the answer to that."

"Oh I see... wait what!?" coughed Akihito as he gave her a quizzical look, "What do you mean!?"

"I just explained that to you," sighed Ayaka as she got up, "We're all split Ayaka's now. You need to find the oldest version of myself to fully understand the situation. As of now I only know you because I just met you today according to my memories."

"Just met me!?" gaped Akihito, "But that was years ago! Oh my god!"

He scrambled to his feet and looked around the cave they had taken shelter in before looking back at the younger Ayaka.

"So do you have any leads as to where I should go to find your oldest self?"

She shook her head slowly in response.

"No I do not know that much," she said calmly, "But be aware as well, the plains you traverse during your travels will consist of my memories. Be wary as I have experienced much throughout my life and some things may potentially be dangerous to you since this isn't just a dream, but an alternate dimension. An alternate reality."

"Don't worry Ayaka," smiled Akihito as he pounded his chest, "Since you've just met me, you probably already know I' immortal as well as the fact I have some control over Beyond the Boundary now."

Even with that response, Ayaka still shook her head in worry.

"Just be careful Akihito, the sooner you find an older version of myself, the sooner you can find a way out of here."

And with that, that version of Ayaka turned away and seemingly faded into thin air, leaving Akihito standing in the middle of a cave alone.

"Gahh... how do I always get myself into situations like this," he grumbled as he made his way towards the exit, his mind swirling with alternate dimension theories and multiple Ayaka's walking around.

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><p><strong>AN: Hope you enjoyed what I'm cooking up. I personally like the plot idea for what I came up with although it may seem unrealistic, but hey it's Kyoukai no Kanata, where anything can happen right? I suppose comments and critiques are welcome as well for anything so long as it's not blatantly insulting. Thanks for reading and chapter 3 to be comings soon.**


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